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Coast Guard, other agencies continue to oversee efforts to kill wild well off Louisiana coast

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The Coast Guard and federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is responding to a loss of well control incident 108 miles south of Lafayette involving the Rowan Louisiana jack-up rig. The incident involves a well operated by EnVen, a company based in Metairie.
(Rowan Companies)

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Coast Guard continued Friday (Jan. 31) to oversee efforts to kill a wild well off the Louisiana coast, a day after crews lost control during drilling, forcing most to evacuate the site. Officials say there are no reports of injuries or pollution.

BSEE officials were in the final stages of reviewing a response plan submitted by the well's owner, EnVen Energy Ventures of Metairie, on Friday afternoon.

EnVen plans to pump weighted drilling fluids into the well in order to apply pressure and stop the flow of natural gas, what's known as a "dynamic kill." Crews are expected to start the process later Friday.

Crews on the jack-up rig Rowan Louisiana were drilling at the well site about 108 miles southwest of Lafayette when it began to flow natural gas Thursday morning. The rig has been evacuated and gas is being diverted overboard as the crew works to kill the well.

The rig was positioned over the A-Platform, which was producing both oil and gas at the time of the incident. All platform production has since been stopped. Officials say there have been no reports of oil sheen in the surrounding water.

Wild natural gas wells are typically less of an environmental threat than offshore oil well blowouts like the one that led to the massive BP oil spill in April 2010.

Even so, scrutiny of all offshore operations has increased in the years following the spill.